Let’s review for a moment the subjects of most animated films: fantastical stories of children, animals or objects striving to become something else that in real life they could never be. A toy desires to be loved. An old grump and a boy want a house to fly. A fish wants to find his daddy. A frog wants to become (again) a prince. A race car has human ambitions.

Animated stories are so rarely about human beings with realistic desires that a movie like the Japanese film “Whisper of the Heart” is a revelation. Japanese studios, frankly, are much better at this in all kinds of animated films — see “Grave of the Fireflies” and the charmingly pedestrian desires of the witches in “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” “Whisper of the Heart” is grounded in the realistic- but-difficult hopes and romances of genuinely drawn young characters.

Shizuku is a dreamy poet of a junior- high-school girl who checks out library books by the armload and bickers amiably with her family over chores and duties. She begins to notice that all her favorite books were previously checked out by a “Seiji Amasawa,” and the movie becomes her quest to figure out who Seiji is and whether he might be her soul mate.

It turns out (slight spoiler alert) that Seiji is an equally dreamy young man who admires Shizuku, but is unshakably focused on his hope of becoming a skilled violin builder. He wants to travel to Italy to train with the masters; Shizuku, meanwhile, ponders how much schooling she needs to fulfill her own desire of becoming a great writer. They have goals that might be within reach, but will require hard work, sacrifice and the cooperation of parents with plans of their own.

“Whisper” moves slow in spots but throws in a magical cat and some fantasy scenes from Shizuku’s stories to keep kids interested. I highly recommend it as an antidote to children’s and tween stories so fantastical that they could never offer a real-life lesson.

Rated: G, though the story might be mature for the youngest audiences.

Best suited for: 7- to 10-year-old girls who like a little realism mixed with their romance

Michael Booth was a health care & health policy writer at The Denver Post before departing in 2013. He started his journalism career as an assistant foreign editor at The Washington Post before moving with family to Denver and taking a brief stint with the Denver Business Journal. During a 25-year career at The Post, he covered city and state politics, droughts, entertainment and wrote Sunday takeouts, and was part of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams for breaking news coverage.